DoCha, downtown Champaign’s premiere free chamber music festival, announces its 10th anniversary season, Friday to Sunday, April 5-7.
The Orpheum Children’s Science Museum, 346 N. Neil St., will once again serve as DoCha’s venue. Named after the initial letters of downtown Champaign, DoCha will transform this former vaudeville theater into a cabaret-style, live music venue. All events are open to the public with no tickets required.
Committed to the idea that music can and should be enjoyed by all people, the festival events are fun-spirited, informal, engaging, collaborative and educational. DoCha’s vision is for an inclusive weekend of music-making, allowing the audience to experience live music up close, including the special communication and relationship between performers.
The festival features some of Champaign’s world-class, internationally acclaimed musicians, scholars and music educators, as well as gifted young musicians in artistic collaborations both within and outside the chamber music genre.
DoCha began as a collective effort among University of Illinois faculty members, students, community members and friends to experiment with new and adventurous ways to present chamber music for the 21st century. For more information, visit www.docha.org.
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Friday, April 5
10 a.m. Family Concert: “Musical Moods”
“Musical Moods” is a comical and educational musical play, perfect for all ages. In this concert, Wolfgang Amadeus Schmutzinberry, a hip and with-it guy who mostly tweets and texts, is having trouble communicating with his grandmother, who only writes letters. Wolfgang must turn his text to grandma into a letter. Could music help him add emotion, mood and feeling to his words? Join the musicians of the DoCha music festival as they teach Wolfgang about dynamics, articulation, and major and minor keys in an effort to help him express himself.
7 p.m. Chamber Music Performance: “Grand Night for Singing”
The event features the music and songs of Rodgers, Hammerstein and Hart performed by Lyric Theatre Illinois.
Saturday, April 6
1 p.m. Family Concert: “Musical Moods”
7 p.m. Chamber Music Performance: “Heart of Generations”
The concert features the Jupiter String Quartet performing string quartets of Mendelssohn and Ligeti. The quartet will be joined by members of the Illinois String Academy in Edward Elgar’s “Introduction and Allegro.”
Sunday, April 7
5 p.m. Chamber Music Performance: “Ace 10”
The festival ends with an evening of works by Schubert, Strauss, Cooke and more, performed by Yvonne Redman, Bernhard Scully, Michael Tilley, Yulia Fedoseeva and Stefan Milenkovich.
